Nightmare Doll Alert: The Sims 4 Revives Imaginary Friends in Adventure Awaits — and They’re Terrifying
The Sims 4 is bringing back Imaginary Friends in its upcoming Adventure Awaits expansion, and according to the official trailer they look a lot creepier than their Sims 3 counterparts. Players will get the old mechanic updated alongside new kid-focused content, but the animated dolls shown so far have a distinctly uncanny look.
What are Imaginary Friends?
Imaginary Friends first appeared in The Sims 3. In that game, they arrived as a toy gifted to households with a newborn or newly adopted child and behaved like an interactive, semi-sentient toy that only the child could see.
With enough attention, the toy could transform into a child-sized companion and eventually become a controllable Sim via the Imaginary Friend Metamorphum Potion. Moreover, prior to becoming human, the toy would sometimes appear in unexpected places around the house — moving on its own while players didn’t see the motion.
As a result, many players found them uncanny. Nevertheless, they were a functional feature that could follow a child through later life stages once made real.
How they work in The Sims 4
Based on the Adventure Awaits trailer, The Sims 4 Imaginary Friends follow the same basic idea: child Sims form relationships with a doll, and when the bond is strong enough they can use the “turn into Imaginary Friend” interaction to animate it. However, the new models shown in the trailer have a more animatronic, wide-eyed appearance compared with The Sims 3 versions.
Additionally, the animated companion appears to be visible only to the child who owns it, at least initially. It is not yet confirmed whether The Sims 4 will include a metamorphosis potion or an equivalent method to make an Imaginary Friend a controllable human Sim, as The Sims 3 did.
According to the trailer text, “The Imaginary Friends do get a bit quirky at night.” More details about interactions and progression may arrive with the full gameplay trailer.
Release details and other Adventure Awaits features
Adventure Awaits will launch on October 2 and includes seasonal features aimed at kids. For example, the pack adds summer camp activities, tools to build and customize playgrounds, and expanded Buy Mode gym equipment. It also introduces a new vacation type called a Getaway.
The expansion arrives on multiple platforms: Mac, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. Meanwhile, EA has scheduled the full gameplay trailer to go live on Wednesday, September 10, which may reveal more about Imaginary Friends and any ways to make them human.
